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Ukraine wants peacekeepers in Donbass to be later replaced with EU police mission

"Police will be invited already after suspension of hostilities to maintain order," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin said

© EPA/OSCAR RIVERA

KIEV, February 21./TASS/. Ukraine expects that a peacekeeping contingent planned for the deployment in Donbass will in time be replaced with a police mission of the European Union, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin told Ukrainian television.

"Police will be invited already after suspension of hostilities to maintain order. But at the present stage Ukraine needs peacekeepers, as their presence is a guarantee of abidance by the Minsk agreements," the foreign minister said.

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Klimkin spoke following a report about upcoming consultations at the UN Security Council scheduled to start on February 23 to discuss a police mission and a peacekeeping contingent. "Both components are equally important, but at different staged," Klimkin said.

He said peacekeepers could be of the UN or the EU. Earlier, authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics said they were ready to have peacekeepers from Russia or Belarus.

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